The Dubai Internet City (DIC) and India's two top information technology (IT) centres in Hyderabad and Bangalore will form strategic alliances.
Started in the 1980s as India’s answer to the Silicon Valley, Bangalore currently ranks among the top five IT centres boasting the cheapest pool of skilled manpower. The vast IT and software engineer human resource base in India, has enabled the country to become a significant provider of both manpower resources and technology to the DIC, Gulf News reported..
"DIC is looking at striking business alliances with the southern Indian states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, both at the state government level and the private sector level," announced Hamed Kazim, the Dubai Internet City's advisor. The DIC also plans to tap into the Egyptian IT/software labor market.
Also, foreign companies are expected to be given a green light to develop DIC's infrastructure. Of the 4,500 companies operating in the DIC, over 1,500 have some foreign component, with foreign investment totaling $2.14 billion in 1999.
The DIC is steadily developing, with phase one to be finished in October, when approximately 70 percent of the work will be completed at the 400hectare site. With various domestic and foreign firms already operating at the DIC, many companies are expected to relocate to Sheikh Mohammed’s visionary city from the Far East and other regions. Kazim, who was appointed by Sheikh Mohammed to serve as principal advisor to DIC, relayed that the DIC’s success would be achieved incrementally after the first phase is completed.. "We will have a series of successes as the project moves forward," he said.
According to Kazim, the region is “still a virgin market” of over 235 million people and a GDP of over $1,175 billion. He expects that by the end of 2002, the Gulf will have approximately 12 million Internet users. "Our aim is to make Dubai the hub for ecommerce and IT,” he disclosed.
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
